Round one results and statement

First Grade 4/5 July 2020

Home	G	Result	Away	G	At
Northern Storm	2	Defeated	Taree Wildcats	1	Korora
Coffs City United	2	Defeated	Port United	0	Coffs Harbour
Kempsey	3	Defeated by	Sawtell	4	Kempsey
Port Saints	1	Defeated by	Macleay Valley	2	Port
Boambee	1	Drew with	Coffs Coast Tigers	1	Boambee

Reserve Grade

Home	G	Result	Away	G	At
Northern Storm	6	Defeated	Taree Wildcats	1	Korora
Coffs City United	2	Defeated	Port United	0	Coffs Harbour
Sawtell	1	Defeated by	Kempsey	2	Kempsey
Port Saints	0	Drew with	Macleay Valley	0	Port
Boambee	2	Defeated	Coffs Coast Tigers	0	Boambee

Comment regarding the match at Korora (Saturday, 5 July 2020)

The match between Northern Storm and Taree Wildcats concluded at the 57-minute mark (33 minutes short of the normal length of a match). A Taree Wildcats player, Jamie Goldsmith, was injured at the 12-minute mark of the second half, with a dislocated knee. The injury was attended to at the scene and Jamie is said to be on the mend.

Due to the nature of the injury, the player remained on the field while awaiting arrival of the ambulance. The wait and treatment time was approximately 30 minutes. With light fading and sunset due at 5.00 pm, the match official (referee) concluded the match on the grounds of player safety. The ground doesn’t have lights for competition play. Under the rules of the competition (Link), this is a “Time completed fixture” (Rule E29), where the referee ends the match at the scheduled finishing time despite play having been halted for some of the scheduled match time due to a seriously injured player being treated/removed from the field by ambulance officers at some time after the injury. The match was due to be completed at approximately 4.40 pm. The score at the time of the incident was Northern Storm 2 leading Taree Wildcats 1.

With the decision to conclude the match at the 57 minute mark, the Northern Storm was declared the winner. The rule states “Any Fixture abandoned or stopped during the second half (i.e. at any time after the blowing of the whistle by the Referee to commence the second half) shall be deemed to have reached its natural conclusion and will NOT be re-scheduled. The score at the time of the abandonment / stoppage will be taken as the final Match score and Match result.”

Comments from Andrew Woodward, CPL spokesman

The Injury to James Goldsmith at Korora was one of those things that could happen in any sport. The NSW Ambulance Service was there quickly and he’s on the mend. We wish him a speedy recovery.

All things considered, it was a pretty good weekend of football. The players only started training a month ago and they haven’t had any full contact training, trial matches or competition play up until this weekend.

The fitness, skill levels and team work will only improve over the coming weeks.

What came through loud and clear over the weekend was the players are totally into it and excited to be back on the pitch.

Good crowds enjoyed the matches in cool conditions as well.

The spoils were evenly decided, two home teams had wins, two home teams had losses and there was one draw.

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Updated: 5 July 2020